Stormy Weather

[salymap]

For the first time ever I forgot all about the London Marathon. So that's why obese ladies and skinny men have been running around here in shorts recently. Well done them for trying though.

[marthe]

Morning all. Marthe, yes that was it. Summer or earlier in 1957 fits and it was the preparation for the Mayflower II project. My Lt Cdr. was RN, long retired, and he even bored his wife by talking of nothing else. Natural really, looking back. If you are linked so directly to history it must be rather overwhelming.

He must have been of an age with my grandmother's admiral who was retired from the USN having seen action during WW II. The War College has many overseas officers coming for 9-18 month sessions. We once knew a family from Chile named Gibbons whose father was an officer in the Chilean Navy and was at the War College for an 18-month hitch. The children spoke Spanish and very little English. One grandmother was from New Zealand (Scottish origins) and lived in Puenta Arenas. Her late husband had owned a sheep estancia on on of the islands just north and west of Tierra del Fuego. Newport has always had an array of international visitors because of the navy and yachting communities. I'm sure the Lt. Cdr's wife was bored to tears and, as a dutiful Navy wife, putting a good face on it. Ancestors a very boring if they're not your own.

This morning, the sun is shining and I'm itching to get back out in the garden but it's also my afternoon for visiting my mother who lives in a nearby nursing home. Speaking of marathons, tomorrow is the Boston Marathon www.baa.org which starts in my old home town of Hopkinton, Mass. and ends in downtown Boston. It is also a holiday in Massachusetts. Growing up, we always had the day off from school, the grown-ups had done their income taxes (April 15th is tax day) and there was truly a festive spirit for marathon day (also known as Patriot's Day in Massachusetts and Maine...no holiday in RI) and we would go to the end of our street and watch the runners go by. It didn't matter that the winner was invariably a Finn, Korean, or Kenyan. Since the 1970s women and wheelchairs have been in the running too!

[eighthobstruction]

Due to the farmer who runs the meadows at the bottom of my garden, being a cheap-skate....the meadow is FULL of amber dandelions ....so many in number they almost make a deficet of dandelions....

[marthe]

Due to the farmer who runs the meadows at the bottom of my garden, being a cheap-skate....the meadow is FULL of amber dandelions ....so many in number they almost make a deficet of dandelions....

They must be pretty when in bloom...but what a nuisance when they've gone to seed! I've ben digging dandelions out of my lawn and garden before they flower so that it doesn't become a problem latter on. My late mother-in-law solved the dandelion problem by making a very fine dandelion wine!

[eighthobstruction]

you'd certainly be drunk for several months on this lot....the hill country here is great for whole field of single types of flowers....buttercups next , then clover....

[marthe]

eigthobstruction, I certaily would be drunk. My M-in-L's wine was quite potent! Still the single-flower field must be quite lovely during all its phases.

[greenilex]

Are the dandelion clocks on summer time yet?

And did anyone catch the first words of Breakfast today? Laze and gemmellumps, was it?

[marthe]

I'm hoping not to have any dandelion clocks at any time. Any one notice the Paschal moon last night? Here it was big and beautiful coming up through the trees. Orion is no longer in the evening sky as he still was last week. The season is rolling along toward warmer weather. I'm still recovering from a major online mistake with our checking account. Credit card company drained the account by mistake. They will reverse this but our account will be flat for 1-2 business days until the funds are transfered back. This has left me biting my nails in frustration and worry. Glass of dandelion wine any one?

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm hoping not to have any dandelion clocks at any time. Any one notice the Paschal moon last night? Here it was big and beautiful coming up through the trees. Orion is no longer in the evening sky as he still was last week. The season is rolling along toward warmer weather. I'm still recovering from a major online mistake with our checking account. Credit card company drained the account by mistake. They will reverse this but our account will be flat for 1-2 business days until the funds are transfered back. This has left me biting my nails in frustration and worry. Glass of dandelion wine any one?

A sign of the times, I'm quite certain, marthe.

The more subject we are to new electronic means of access to our needs and resources, the more we are at the mercy of mistakes not of our own making, which then take a labyrinth of circuitous routes to sort out - if we're lucky. Two recent personal examples being the loss of all my email addresses prior to obtaining a new computer, into which all previous data was supposed to have downloaded; and the installation of an expensive new boiler which then required an assortment of engineers returning 3 times to iron out teething problems - hopefully! And the "person" on the answering machine I dictated my details to misspelt my surname, making it look as though I must be Slovak by birth name! Only today I received a "reminder" to the effect that I have not paid the bill for this - quoting a demand for £400 + LESS than I actually paid in the form of a cheque, which I physically handed over to the chappy who did the installation, more than a week ago! What does one do - wait until the final reminder warning of court action???

Only yesterday I tried and tried in vain to log on to the new Zetaboard catering for ex-Radio 4 messageboarders. I think I shall give up on that particular endeavour....



Er - my sympathies, and best wishes!

S-A

[marthe]

Thanks, S-A. Sounds as if you've been put through quite a run-around with your boiler etc. Don't talk to me about misspelt/mispronouncnced surnames. My entire life I've had to spell out my maiden name over the phone because it is too "foreign" sounding for most Americans (ironic that). To make matters worse, it starts with a small "de' and has an accent over one of the letters. Imagine what computers have done to that never mind dozy telephone operators/call-centre phone monkeys. My married name is much simpler but is always mispronounced. My husband gets livid when phone calls come in asking for ...[insert mispronounced surname]. Oh well, that's my moan for the day. I'm still holding my breath about our funds transfer and hoping that we don't have any "rubber" checks because of this. I've had the embarrassment of asking a friend not to cash or deposit a check I sent him until the end of the week.

[salymap]

Good morning on a lovely sunny day. S-A and marthe, sympathy on your financial problems with computers etc.
I still won't bank or buy anything on line if I can get younger relis to help me. I had enough trouble with an ordinary bank, where I've had an account for 50 years or so.I asked them to cancel one card, they cancelled them all. I had lots of trouble to correct their mistake and have never forgotten it.

[greenilex]

I have noticed that banks take absolutely no notice of customer loyalty - they treat customers of many decades exactly as if they had just opened their first account and gone overdrawn directly - I suppose because taking account of individual differences is beyond a huge corporation. Pity, that.

When I think of what my bank must have made out of my deposits over the years...

[Curalach]

One of the problems with modern banks is the demise of the local bank manager who knew his customers. The advent of "customer advisers" aka "salesmen" reading off a computer generated script is an apology for customer service. Banks should concentrate on banking. If I want insurance I go to an Insurance Broker; if I want investments I go to my Stockbroker; if I want a Will I go to my Solicitor, I don't want to be sold "products" by some spotty youth who knows nothing of me or my requirements.

I have recently discovered a Swedish bank, Handelsbanken, which operates in the UK and which provides exactly the kind of banking service we all used to know and respect.

Sorry about the rant!

[gradus]

....and whilst we're on the subject, the nauseatingly smug Natwest ads and their ludicrous 'Customer Charter' take some beating for capacity to irritate but the Halifax have managed it with their 'ISA, ISA' ad.

[amateur51]

....and whilst we're on the subject, the nauseatingly smug Natwest ads and their ludicrous 'Customer Charter' take some beating for capacity to irritate

I agree wholeheartedly, gradus

" but the Halifax have managed it with their 'ISA, ISA' ad." - I've not seen this and I shall try very hard not to.

Banks

Estate Agents

Insurance companies

Politicians

Journalists

As the late great Terry-Thomas would say "... you're an absolute shaaaaaarr!"